Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a fluid control device, and in particular to a fluid control device with a temperature control function and energy recovery system. Specifically, the present invention relates to a valve assembly with a thermostatic function and a heat energy recovery device including the valve assembly.
Related Art
In everyday life, people may use different washing facilities for cleaning and washing. These washing facilities include, for example, bathrooms, washing sinks, hair washing sinks, and the like. However, if the washing facilities use hot water as a washing medium, wastewater discharged by the facilities still contains a huge amount of heat energy, resulting in a waste of energy. Therefore, people try to recover and utilize heat energy from the discharged wastewater.
An invention patent CN201010224654.4 filed on Jul. 7, 2010 and entitled “valve assembly and heat energy recovery device with the valve assembly” discloses a valve assembly. As shown in FIG. 1, the valve assembly 2 includes a housing 30, a spool 31 disposed in the housing 30 and a handle 32 for controlling the spool. The housing 30 is provided with a cold water input pipe 24, a cold water output pipe 25, a tepid water input pipe 26, a hot water output pipe 27, and a hot water input pipe 29, so as to be in communication with the spool 31. The heat energy recovery device disclosed in the patent can be directly installed without transforming or changing a building structure, thereby simplifying the installation procedure and reducing the installation cost. Moreover, as shown in FIG. 2, in the heat energy recovery device, a cold water source is not directly communicated with a heat exchange device, but is communicated with the valve assembly and provides cold water for the heat exchange device by means of the valve assembly. The cold water is heated into tepid water by the heat exchange device, and the tepid water is returned to the valve assembly to be mixed with hot water supplied by a hot water source, to generate tepid water at a suitable temperature, and the tepid water is input, by means of the valve assembly, into a washing facility to be utilized. Therefore, water pressure borne by the heat exchange device can be effectively reduced, to prevent seepage of clean water caused by damage to the heat exchange device. However, in the heat energy recovery device, because the cold water enters the valve assembly after heat exchange is performed in a heat exchanger, and the temperature of the cold water rises slowly to achieve stability, in the meantime, a user needs to regulate a handle of the valve assembly constantly to stabilize the water temperature, which is inconvenient.